Safety still relies on the human element

In emergency situations, Weston County School District No. 1 Superintendent Brad LaCroix said, the district begins external communications once students and staff are accounted for and safe. When students are released, they’re released from a sheltered place, at a pace that allows for accountability and several double-checks. Parents aren’t always able to come pick up their child immediately, and a staff member stays with the child until the parent or guardian arrives.

The communications process is tricky, especially considering how quickly a rumor can spread and how difficult it is to change the mind of a person who heard the rumor, LaCroix said. If one student were to announce via social media that they heard a gunshot and are “pretty sure” someone was shot, “everyone assumes that’s the gospel truth.” Timeliness, transparency and safety are important, but being “very factual” is also key, he said.

The district treats all threats seriously, communicating them to parents, ensuring that children are safe, and partnering with law enforcement, he said. While LaCroix became a superintendent because he wanted to help build systems children could succeed in, threats against school safety abound.

“Today, we have a lot of distractions. We have got to keep that positive focus on what we’re really here for, but on the back side, every day, I’d be a fool to tell you it doesn’t cross my mind,” LaCroix said.

LaCroix said one of the most upsetting parts of the events of March 15, 2023, when a Newcastle High School student brought a gun to school, was that some students were aware the weapon was on school grounds, for the purpose of harming another student, “almost an hour” before a student reported it to the office. It should have been reported immediately, he said, even if someone might view that as being “a snitch” or “a narc.” (Ed. note: The News Letter Journal’s podcast’s second episode discusses what happened that day,)

LaCroix also urged people who are tentative about calling 911 about a child’s behavior to consider what they would want an observer to do if the child was theirs instead.

“A lot of our safety is not an app, it’s not a call, it’s not video, it’s a human reaching out,” he said.

He said that the district runs through many different drills and practices but ultimately there has to be trust that “somebody is going to do the right thing, no matter what that is,” because more and more variations on violent situations happen every day around the world.

“I think everyone is really concerned about safety and we want to work together, and we don’t want the ‘what if?’s, but the only way you don’t have the ‘what if?’s is everyone has to really, really work together,” LaCroix said. “You can’t say after the fact, ‘Well, hell, I could have told you that.’ That doesn’t do you any good.”

How to receive communications

Weston County School District No. 1 provides information to the community in several ways. In partnership with the News Letter Journal, it provides video coverage of board meetings on NLJ’s YouTube channel, at youtube.com/@newsletterjournal832. The district’s website is wcsd1.org, and its main phone number is (307) 746-4451. The Facebook page, at facebook.com/profile.php?id=100063806059763, is titled “Weston County School District # 1.”

The district also partners with 94.3 FM / AM 1240 KASL and Weston County Emergency Management Coordinator Gilbert Nelson’s NOAA Weather Radio All Hazards service, WNG-661 162.475.